News

Company Shop Group, the UK’s largest commercial redistributor of surplus food and household products, has today been awarded nearly £2million (£1,960,575) worth of funding as part of Defra’s commitment to significantly reduce the amount of food unnecessarily going to waste in England.

Survey finds older people embracing more sustainable shopping habits

Whilst environmental issues have repeatedly been found to be a top priority for young people, a new survey shows how young adults are lagging behind their older peers when it comes to embracing more sustainable shopping habits.

Company Shop Group achieves second Queen’s Awards For Enterprise

Company Shop Group, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus food and household products, was today announced as a winner of the prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise – the UK’s top business accolade.  

Company Shop Group is now a two-time Queen’s Award winner, having achieved this award in the Sustainable Development category before in the same category in 2015. Judges praised Company Shop Group’s significant commercial success and positive benefits for society, the economy and the environment.

The announcement follows another significant year of growth for the business. In 2018, Company Shop Group increased the amount of surplus it redistributed by 8%, and returned over £16.5m back into the industry for the surplus it purchased. Following the opening of two more superstores in 2018, the Group also has ambitious plans for continued expansion in 2019.

The Award also recognises the Group’s award-winning social enterprise Community Shop, the award-winning social enterprise established by Company Shop Group, which sells high-quality, low-cost surplus food to local members who are receiving welfare support and are motivated to make a positive change in their lives and enrol on courses such as employability, financial skills and self-confidence.

Major retailers back new ‘chill to freeze’ innovation

Major retailers including Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and The Co-op have endorsed a new ‘chill to freeze’ innovation developed by Company Shop to tackle the UK’s food waste challenge.

The initiative will see surplus stock blast frozen and then sold as frozen product; an industry first in the redistribution sector. The process will help to address the long-standing challenge of how to redistribute stock  with limited shelf life, to prevent it ending up as waste.
 

Unpretty can be popular with consumers

Company Shop, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus stock, has today released figures showing over 2.1 million units of plain packaged products will have been purchased by its customers by the time the company’s financial year ends on 30th September 2018.

 The news follows research published by the University of Edinburgh last week which reported that more than four million tonnes of good food is wasted in the UK each year due to cosmetic standards, in part because of customer expectations of how it should look.
 
Yet Company Shop’s figures are evidence that aesthetics are not everything. The commercial redistributor sells both branded and unbranded goods, and the latest numbers indicate an increasing willingness amongst customers to choose ‘unpretty’ products for the right reasons.

'Changing Mindsets', group's first sustainability and impact report

Company Shop, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus food and household products, has released it’s first-ever Sustainability and Impact Report.  

‘Changing Mindsets’ demonstrates how the Group’s activity has made a sustainable impact on the food and household industry, headlined by the 70 million units of surplus stock it handled in 2018 which saved 23,607 tonnes of waste, an increase of 8% from the previous year.

·        70 million units handled in 2018 including 4.2 million non-food items
·        23,607 tonnes of waste saved; up 8% from 2017
·        380,000 worth of stock donations by industry partners to support Community Shop

For more information email sustainability@companyshopgroup.co.uk